Brain expansion: different theories about rapid expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, September 13, 2020, 15:46 (1314 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: No, stasis is my main point and you haven't refuted my objection to your theory that a nebulous demand enlarges the brain.

dhw: I’m glad stasis is your main point. In my theory, the brain complexifies and/or expands in order to meet new requirements. It ceases to complexify/expand if there are no new requirements, and so there is stasis. In your theory, your God expanded the Moroccans’ brains 315,000 years ago, and they did nothing with them for the next 280,000 years. What nebulous reason can you come up with for this premature operation, if there were no new requirements? Please don’t say “anticipation”, or “learning how to use them”. Anticipation does not explain why the Moroccans didn’t do anything, and you can’t learn how to do something without doing something, and your whole point is they did nothing.

They didn't do nothing. They went on living on the level of sophistication they were born into. Bit by bit new concepts appeared and sapiens developing them at an exponential rate becaus e the capacity of their brain was prepared to do it.

dhw: And please remember that in your own words, our brains REACT to the demands we place on them. They do not anticipate demands.

That is because the brains contain a complexification mechanism which is also a reorganization mechanism in small interconnected areas.

dhw: As for your objection to my own theory, I can only repeat that NOBODY knows what caused the different enlargements. I have suggested “new ideas, ways of life, changes of environment” – and you very kindly suggested a change of climate, though you didn’t mean to.

I said the climate was pleasant: "no new advances in life-style in a pleasant climate."

DAVID: My answer is God enlarged the brain and had the complexification mechanism built in.

dhw: But we have agreed that the autonomous complexification mechanism must already have existed in pre-sapiens brains, and since modern brains are known to add a few cells to meet specific requirements, why do you exclude the possibility that in former times the same mechanism could have added lots of cells to meet specific requirements? After all, you yourself have told us that the brain has an autonomous “adaptability to react to any and all physical and mental and emotional demands we place on it.” Why is it not feasible that the pre-sapiens brain also reacted autonomously to the demands placed on it?

dhw: Your only answer to this question so far has been that God did it. Now, once more: please tell us why you don’t think it possible that the autonomous mechanism you believe your God designed for complexification, plus the addition of a few cells, could not also have complexified and added a lot of cells in earlier times.

Of course God did it. That is my position. All brains, pre-sapiens and sapiens had the complexification mechanism given by God. The required complexity of design requires God's designing mind.